Opinion from Limited owners

Would like to see what the other Limited owners on here think about my tire situation. Have a 2023 Limited FT4WD that I have been driving for almost 2 years (~25K miles). This morning on the way to work the low tire pressure warning light suddenly comes on. I hit the button to check the tire pressures and it says the passenger side rear tire is at 10psi. Yikes - I pull over into a parking lot and get out to check the tire - yep, seriously low. I carry an air compressor in the back, mostly for bicycle tires, but it will air up car/truck tires - just takes a while. I get the compressor hooked up and am filling the tire and I notice a screw in the tire - right in the curve of the tire where the tread transitions to the sidewall. Well, that tire is done. The Toyota dealer where I get my 4Runner serviced is right by where I work - so I decide to try to get enough air in the tire to make it there. I get the tire up to ~27psi and head for the dealer. It's maybe a 2-3 mile drive and the tire is down to 25psi when I pull into the service bay. Vehicle came new with P245/60R20 Yokohama Geolander G96 tires. Tires have been fine, and I have been rotating the full size spare with matching wheel in every 5000 miles. Here's where I want your opinion. The tires are ~1/3-1/2 through their life - would probably have replaced all five tires at somewhere between 50K-60K miles, but don't think I want to replace them all now as I probably have another 2 years+ life on these tires. Service adviser confirms they can't fix the tire due to where the screw penetrated the tire and says they can get a replacement tire in by 2:00. I tell her to get the new tire, rotate my spare in to replace the bad tire, and put the new tire in underneath as the spare. I figure I'll just go for two years without rotating the spare in (if I'm lucky and don't get another flat) - and just rotate the 4 existing tires every 5000 miles until I need new tires - probably in about 2-2.5 years. When I need new tires I'll only get 4 new tires - and then start rotating in the 2-2.5 year old spare with no miles on it. I know some will say to just start rotating the new tire in now - but it is not good to have tires with even slightly different diameters on a full time 4WD vehicle - so I'm not going to risk uneven wear on the center and rear differentials. Obviously, I'd use the spare tire if I needed it - but only long enough to get to where I could get new tires. Does anyone see any big risk to keeping the new tire in the spare location for 2-2.5 years before using it? I don't think that is long enough to worry about dry rot. It would be ~$2000 to replace all five tires - but only ~$400 to replace the bad tire - so I'd like to get a few more years use out of these tires.

 

A tire can sit for several years before I’d want to replace it. There’s also a margin for error with tire diameters.

What I would do is buy a used matching tire (if available, they state tread depth on listings) and replace the flat and you’re back in business as you were.

But having a different new tire as the spare and going to a four tire rotation is fine too.

 

I keep the new tire in the spare, i only put it on the ground when i need it. Typically the spare will last 3 sets of tires before it starts dry rotting. Are you keeping the vehicle 200k miles to need to purchase an extra spare? The 5 wheel rotations are not my jam but you know, you do you.....

A new tire vs a 25,000 mile tire is going to be what, 3/16" taller? There is absolutely no reason to worry about it being larger and messing differentials up, thats totally not anything to worry about?

 

Realistically I won't expect 50K miles out of a tire for a 4Runner. I would expect around 30K miles to drive safely (as long as its atleast above 5/32 - 4/32 ish), so may be you are not off from that mark.

1) Me personally never go to the dealership to buy tires. I go to places like discount tire where I have more options and tires quickly sell. Also they price match with major tire shops including Costco.

2) My dealership never did 5 tire rotation it was always 4 tire rotation even though manual says 5 tire rotation is recommended.

3) I have change my Limited from 20in wheels to 17in wheels where I have more rubber. 17in tires are relatively cheap and has lot of options. Where I live 3peak mountain snow flake rated tires are a must.

(Wheel swap was done at Discount tire where the existing tpms sensors was used in new wheels. Had no problems what so ever.)

 

Airdam - that is a good point. I don't really care about the 5 tire rotation either. I was thinking that maybe I would switch to Michelin Defenders when I finally need new tires in a few years. If I decide to do that - then I would just keep the Yokohama Geolander as the spare tire and do a 4 tire rotation on the Michelins. If I decide to just get the Yokohama Geolanders again then I guess I could go back to the 5 tire rotation to get full use out of them. I probably will keep this vehicle for at least 10 more years - so,150K, maybe 200K miles - so probably looking at 3-4 sets of tires over the life of the vehicle. If I just stay with a dedicated spare, and only rotate the 4 tires on the ground, I likely would never have to replace the spare. I had a 2010 4WD Tacoma Sport before this 4Runner. Drove it for 12.5 years/145K miles - never changed the spare tire and it still held proper pressure when I gave the truck to my son. I'm going to stick to my plan and just replace the bad tire in the spare location with another Yokohama Geolander and go to a 4 tire rotation until I need new tires. At that point, if I decide to replace with different tires, I'll just keep the Yokohama as the spare and keep doing a 4 tire rotation.

 

Thanks for the reply Kmeeg. Yeah, I wouldn't normally go to the dealer for tires. However, in this situation the issue with the tire presented itself suddenly while on my way to work this morning. The Toyota dealer I use to service my vehicle is just down the street from my work. They told me they could get the matching tire today and have it ready for me to pick up this afternoon. My wife and I are going on a ~350 mile road trip this weekend - so I wanted to get this fixed quickly before that. In this case it was just a lot easier to go to the dealer. I probably paid $40-$50 more for the tire through the Toyota dealer than I would have if I had a little time to shop around - but I didn't want to mess with cranking down the spare and changing it out (it was lightly raining at the time) and I didn't know how fast the air would leak out after I aired it up - so the Toyota dealer seemed like my best bet in this situation.

As I said the Yokohama's have been fine - but like you have done, I have thought about switching to 17" wheels/tires. I saw another Mag Gray Limited with 17" bronze colored wheels and thought it looked pretty good. There are a lot more tire choices with P265/70R17. I'd probably still stay with a more on-road oriented tire rather than off road tires - but could probably get something that is better in snow than the 20" tires I have now - although I have had zero problems in the snow the last two winters with my current tires. We'll see when it is time to get new tires if I feel like spending the $.

 

I debated throwing out Geolanders that came with my Limited outright and replacing them with a decent tire, but then decided it was too wasteful.

Personally, I would use this opportunity to upgrade tires to something focused on on-road driving, like Michelin Primacy or Defenders. I would also seriously consider downsizing rims to soften the ride if you have to drive over bad roads. For winter, I have Michelin X-Ice Snow tires on 17s and the ride is vastly superior to summer Geolanders on 20s.

 

This is bad advice. Tires degrade with both miles and time, typically anything longer than 8 years should be replaced. Old tire hardens and has a lot less traction, higher chance of blow-out way before signs of dry rot are visible.

I have multiple sports and classic cars, and I can tell you that old tires can make it outright dangerous. You lose traction and go into a skid without any warning (audible, seat of your pants) that a normal tire would give you.

 

I think for any normal person on this board, they wouldnt be pushing their car around turns trying to see if you can get 1g on a city street on their spare tire. Sure you are correct, as a tire gets old the rubber hardens, but again, you are on a spare and the spares job is to get you to a tire shop to fix whatever is wrong with YOUR tire. I do not intend to put on my spare and spend forever on the road and if i do put my spare on, typically i am not running circuit races and skidpads.
You do you though big guy.